Solid propellant is generally cured by exposing the cast, molded, or extruded propellant to elevated temperatures (135.degree.F) for a period of time up to about 5 days or longer. Because of the extended time required to cure by conventional procedure, the tie-up of the casting tooling and the long turn-around time means excessive delays which results in increased production costs. Also, the extended curing time allows some settling of ingredient to take place which causes a gradation of mechanical properties throughout the cured propellant grain.
Desirable would be a method for curing propellants which would reduce the time for curing and ultimately reduce casting tooling requirements and turn-around time.
Also, desirable would be a method for curing propellant which results in a propellant with improved mechanical properties as compared with propellant cured by conventional thermal curing methods.
Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a method for decreasing the curing time of nitrogen-fluorine propellant.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method for curing nitrogen-fluorine propellant within a rocket tube to achieve improved mechanical properties and uniformity of mechanical properties in the cured propellant.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method for curing nitrogen-fluorine propellant in propellant tubes that are used in micro-motors which utilize thin walled-titanium tubes with a graphite-epoxy overwrap for containing the nitrogen-fluorine solid propellant.